I am probably the only person in America who will talk about Washington, D.C. today without mentioning the Health Care bill! While health care is a very important sector of the economy for our region today I want to talk about Workforce Development issues as they relate to the national legislative agenda.

Earlier this month I was in Washington and had the opportunity to visit Congressman Delahunt’s office. I had a lengthy discussion with staff member Doug Gascon about reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and summer jobs for our region this year.

The reauthorization issue has been an ongoing saga for some five years now. The original WIA law took effect in 2000 and was authorized only through 2005, requiring congressional action to continue. Since 2005 the Congress has been unable to reach final action on a reauthorizing bill. One branch or the other has been stymied, for a number of reasons, and not able to agree on passage of a bill. Of course there have been a number of higher priority issues, like health care and no child left behind, that have drawn attention away from WIA passage.

Currently, the information available to me indicates that the Senate is ready to move a reauthorization bill later this spring, but the House may not have reached consensus around a single proposal to also pass a bill. Time will tell if there will be enough support in both branches to pass a reauthorization bill this year.

We also discussed the potential for a summer jobs program this year. You may recall that last summer the Congress appropriated funding for a national summer jobs program. The funding allowed us to put over 230 young people to work. In addition to the work time we also provided training in employability skills to ensure that our summer workers possess the skills needed to acquire jobs and excel in the workplace.

While I was in the Capital the Senate considered and defeated a summer jobs proposal that was offered as an amendment to a Jobs bill. Senator Kerry was a co-sponsor of the amendment, which was defeated over a procedural issue. I appreciate Senator Kerry’s action to provide funding for a program this year.

The latest info is that on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told workforce development lobbyists that she is very optimistic about Congress approving funding for a summer youth program soon.

Specifically, Pelosi thinks that the Obey jobs bill (H.R. 4899) should clear the House by this Thursday at the latest. The House is scheduled to begin consideration of the bill on Wednesday. Although, both the $600 million summer youth provision and the $60 million small business lending provision are fully paid for with offsets from other programs the Speaker indicated that the $5.1 billion emergency FEMA provision is not offset, and because Congress is attempting to adhere to the recently adopted pay-as-you-go rules there is still some "internal work" to be done.

Personally, Speaker Pelosi favors a much larger summer youth program, originally recommending $3.1 billion. While she thought a $1.2 billion program was likely she now realizes that she must settle for a $600 million program due to the need to pay for the program with offsets.

When asked about the fate of any jobs bills in the Senate the Speaker indicated that she feels strongly that this bill will pass, possibly moving through the Senate before the spring recess begins next week. It is clear that House and Senate Democratic leaders have been in communication concerning passage of this modest jobs bill, and that is good news.

The Cape and Islands WIB is ready to implement a summer jobs program if Congress approves the funding. We hope that they will.